“There is a need for colleges, universities, government agencies and public institutions to have an organized vehicle to promote excellence in design, construction and maintenance of all forms of vertical transportation. ELEVATOR U is a voluntary association of individuals the purposes of which are exclusively charitable and educational.

On October 5-6, 2014 Elevator U attended the annual SRAPPA conference at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. The attendee’s were from public and private universities, and community colleges that came together for an opportunity to learn and network together. Attendee’s from eleven states plus the U.S. Caribbean islands make up the SRAPPA region – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The event included a business partner’s exhibit hall for firms that support the facilities profession. Elevator U exhibited for the first time at this year’s conference to network with facilities professionals, to educate them on elevator safety for college students through its “Rise Up, Safe Rider” program, and we were looking for an introduction to the person that is responsible for their facilities elevators. We ultimately planned on getting that person the information to explain the benefits that Elevator U offers to educational facilities. The attendees were able to network with other professionals from around the country and share in their expertise. The educational facilities workplace has been transformed in recent years by a variety of forces. Intense competition, advancing technology, changing values, and a global economy have created new challenges for the management of educational facilities. This organizations fresh approach of developing leadership towards organizing and managing this new environment, shows us all the new direction of educational facilities in the future.